All For You
by swirling-dimension
Summary: Dipper Pines has a secure future. His sister Mabel, not so much. She is willing to give up her summer to work to save up the money she needs for her dream school. Dipper decides to help, but soon realizes he really shouldn't have joined a gang to make faster money. This Bill Cipher makes him feel uneasy to the core.
1. Chapter 1

There was no other time that was excruciatingly slow like the last week of school. At least that's how Dipper felt. Everyone else around him ran in circles like headless chickens panicking about their grades, and their finals. Even his twin sister, Mabel, which confused him because she would be passing sophomore year with a 'B' average. He thought that was pretty good for someone with little to no attention span. He found it odd how his sister basically made a 180 turn near the end of March, and spent most of her time in her room doing homework.

She only spoke to him or their parents when she passed them in the halls, or in the dining room. She wouldn't even talk in the car as they drove to school. Her eyes glued to notecards she flipped through the entire morning. He figured it was for a test, and come lunch time his hunch was right. She sat down next to him at their usual spot outside underneath a large oak tree. It's branches hung down, heavy with the leaves it bore. She didn't say anything for a couple of minutes; only staring down at the ground with a lost expression on her face. It wasn't until he called her name that she turned toward him and he felt his heart sink. Tears welled up in her eyes as she started sobbing aloud.

"Oh, Dipper," she wailed. "I can't do anything right! I'm a total failure when it comes to school!"

"Whoa, hey, hey!" Dipper set his food down and brought Mabel in close, hugging her. "What are you talking about? You haven't failed."

"Yes I have!" Mabel dug into her bag, and pulled out a packet and shoved it in Dipper's face. "See? This is proof! I studied, and studied really hard for my geometry test! I even placed all my electronics in mom and dad's room and made them promise not to give them back to me every night until I had finished studying! I holed myself up in my room, doing nothing but looking at shapes and formulas for nearly two months! I memorized every formula we'd be using on the final! All five of them! And I still only got a 'C-'."

Dipper thoroughly looked over Mabel's math final as she cried on his shoulder. He felt terrible for her. She really had tried her best to not be distracted with her social life, even Waddles. Only going out to the backyard to feed him and pet him for a short time. Dipper helped out by giving the hog attention in his sister's absence. He would even help out by pop quizzing Mabel every morning at breakfast, and she did exceptionally well. They both thought that she had it this year. Unfortunately, it didn't work out to her favor when it came to the actual test. Dipper heard of students going blank when faced with the real thing, and he could only imagine how horrible the dreadful feeling was knowing that your career as a high school student was dependant on how well you did in all of your classes. Even the extracurricular ones.

He rubbed her back comfortingly. "Well, this can't be all bad, right? You did get a passing grade, after all. And this will only bring your final grade to a 'B' average. You still pass!"

Mabel pushed away from him. "You don't understand…" she muttered as she dug more into her bag and pulled out a pamphlet.

It read, 'West Coast Arts' and in the background was a student working on a pretty impressive statue of a dragon. The inside of the pamphlet listed an array of classes and online features the college could provide it's students. On the back were the logos of hugely named companies the college had it's students work for. Clothing companies like, 'Suburban InFitters', and 'Vins Shoes inc.' even that really big movie production company founded by legendary cartoonist, Dalton Wisney.

Dipper looked between his sister and the pamphlet before admitting, "You're right, I don't understand. Like, is this the school you want to go to?" Mabel nodded. "Then, what's wrong?"

"Dipper, if I don't get good grades, then I can't get into the advanced design program that they're offering! Their top students get to enter their projects in The Graduation Fashion Show that's held in San Francisco every spring!" She took away the pamphlet and replaced it with a magazine entitled, 'Passionate Fashion'. "See that magazine? It's one of the top running zines in the country! They keep up with all the latest styles that celebrities wear, and will even feature the winning styles from the show!"

Dipper had to admit that some of the entries were pretty strange. Why was there a model wearing a smock where the collar stood above their head with two eye holes punched out? Who would wear that in public?

"Okay, but, why are you so concerned? Even if you don't get grant money, there's still financial aid. Your gpa has been above a 3.0 this year."

"But in order to get into the advanced classes I've got to have a 3.8 or higher or they won't accept me! This is my dream, Dipper!" She took back the magazine. "Besides, you know how the last two years of highschool are the most important. Not that you have to worry about that or anything."

Dipper scoffed, "Sorry for being so attentive to my school work that I've been enrolled in AP classes and given the opportunity to graduate a year early?"

"I'm sorry," Mabel looked at him sadly. "I guess I'm just upset that all my hard work only resulted in me getting barely a passing grade. This university is pretty strict with their prerequisites. If I don't show them that I can be the best of the best especially now, the only chance I have for those courses is to pay for them myself, and they're like five hundred bucks per quarter." She paused for a second, "I think I'm going to get a summer job."

"What?" Dipper gawked at her, "But we're supposed to be going back to Gravity Falls for a couple of months to spend time with Grunkle Stan and Ford!"

"I know, but I've thought about this for a while, and if I want to get into the college and program that I want after high school, I've got to prepare for the worse." Mabel threw her arms around her brother. "Dipper, I'm sorry! Please don't be mad at me!"

"I'm not mad at you. A lil' upset, but it's alright." He assured her as he hugged back.

A sharp ring echoed across the school grounds and like clockwork, the students who were lazing about outside started to march into the building. Dipper scarfed down what was left of his sandwich, and grabbed his backpack and followed suit; Mabel in tow.

"So, since I'm not going to Oregon for sure this summer, will you still be going?"

"Eh, I'm not sure," Dipper opened the door to the school, and allowed Mabel and a couple of others to enter first before him. "It wouldn't be as fun without you, though I do wanna see them."

"I think you should go anyway," Mabel offered. They stopped at the base of the stairs. "Don't stay on my account."

"I'll think about it. See you after school, Mabes." Dipper turned to walk further down the hall as Mabel made her way up the stairs.

She really felt terrible, and the feeling was only making her stomach flip. Both she and Dipper had been planning what they'd be doing this upcoming summer since February, and she had to ruin it all by getting a job. For a minute she wondered if she was being selfish. Maybe she could just get a part time job at the start of the school year? Work a few days a week for the money that she needed and still have a great summer with her bro. It sounded like it would work, but Mabel decided against it. She knew that when she said she was getting a summer job, she meant that it was going to be a permanent part-time job until she got the money she needed for college. She'd have the rest of the school day to figure out how to tell him that. Eyeing the clock she noted: two hours and thirty minutes left.


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper sighed in frustration as he messed with the doorknob to their house. "Mabel, for the last - fucking lock, come on! - the last time! I'm not angry with you! But this door is starting to piss me- there we go! Finally."

Relieved that they were granted access, Dipper tossed the keys into a small ceramic bowl sitting on top of an antique end table by the front door. Both he and Mabel took off their shoes and placed them neatly against the wall. Their mother always made them wear socks or slippers around the house. The only time they were allowed to be barefoot was in their own bedrooms, or in the bathroom.

"Kids? Are you home?" The twins entered the kitchen and greeted their sick mother. She picked up a small stack of letters. "Michael, these came for you in the mail. They look like they're all from those colleges you applied to."

That sort of news brightened Dipper's mood. He took the letters from her hand, and sat down excitedly. He received three letters; each from the best tech schools in the country. He opened the one from 'West Coast Tech' first, then 'MIIT', and finally 'Lardvard University'.

Mabel sat down across from him with two cups of coffee in her hands, and handed one to Dipper. "Well bro? Which nerdy school did you get into?"

He looked up at both her and his mom; a look of astonishment flooded his face. "All of them, actually."

Both women started to clap and cheer for him. Making him feel flushed. They circled around him and began to smother him. The front door opened again and a voice rang out, "What's all the commotion?"

Mabel jumped off Dipper and ran towards the voice with her mother shouting after her to not run in the house. "Dad! Dipper got into all the fancy schools!"

The man grabbed his daughter as she bounced into his arms. "Hi, sweetheart. And is that so?" He set her down and strolled over to where his wife and son were sitting and picked up one of the letters. "Let me see, son. Wow, even Lardvard wants you? Those extra classes really paid off, eh?"

"Thanks, dad." He passed the other two to his dad. "How's work? More boring paperwork?"

"Yeah…" the man slumped down in a chair next to Dipper. "Haven't needed me for any field work yet like they said that I would get to do after "promoting" me. A bunch of bullshit."

"James! Language!" Scolded Mrs. Pines.

"Sorry, Kara. Also, shouldn't you be in bed? You're still contagious."

Kara glared at her husband. "I only came down for some soup before the kids got home. But I'll get back to my room now, _dad_."

"Hey! What have I told you about keeping our private time _inside_ of the bedroom?" James called out to her as she walked upstairs.

Dipper bolted up from his seat. "OH-KAY. This got weird fast." He gathered up his approval letters from his father and headed upstairs with Mabel who was laughing her head off. "Have fun at work, 'Officer Dad'. See you later tonight for dinner!"

"You too, son! Sorry for scarring your memories again!" James hollered before leaving out the door.

* * *

Dipper swiveled in his chair at his desk in his room, staring at the letters he received that afternoon. Mabel sat on his bed with Waddles beside her, petting him on the head. She giggled at the scrunched up look Dipper had on his face. He must have read each of those letters a dozen times each at least. She figured it must be hard to decide which prestigious school to go to when the best ones contact you directly stating that they want you for your smarts.

Mabel had to admit that she felt a little left out. She realized a while ago that there would come a time when she and Dipper would have to go their separate ways, but she was hoping that would come after college, and that they'd attend the same university together. But not all plans go the way that you want them to, and she knew she couldn't ask him to downgrade his college choices just because she wouldn't be able to go to any of the ones for smart people. Oh, she really wanted to go to West Coast Arts, but if her school work kept going the way that it was, she'd be stuck with a less extraordinary not-as-good college, and she didn't want that.

She took out her phone and opened up several tabs on the internet. Might as well go job hunting while they were waiting for their father to return home for the night with take-out again. She didn't like the idea of working in the food industry, so she decided to try retail. Store like, KCJenny's, Marcy's, hell she'd even work at Darter's if she had to.

"Mabel, I still can't decide…" Dipper sulked in his chair. "Think I should consult Grunkle Ford? I think he'd know what's best for me."

Mabel looked up from her phone, "Dipper, he's not the one going. You are. If you have to, consider his advice, but don't follow it to the full extent. You might regret it if you try to live someone else's dream."

"Well, yeah. I'm not gonna let it get to that point," he glossed over the letters again. "WCT is very promising in their programs… but MIIT looks so much cooler."

"Aren't they basically the same? Just rivals with each other or something?" Mabel focused back on her phone. "I'll be back, I have to get my personal info from mom."

Dipper nodded at her as she left. He turned to his computer and logged into his instant messenger account. He searched his contacts for 'The Mystery Shack' and clicked the call button. The receiver answered after a few rings, and his face came into view. Albeit a little shaky with the camera.

"Darn thing. Why did they make these cameras so sensitive?"

Dipper laughed, "Hey, Grunkle Ford."

"Hello, Dipper!" Ford waved at him through the camera, making it go out of focus for a short moment. "Ach! Sorry about that! I hate these things…"

Dipper nodded, "Yeah not even the ones that are supposed to stay in focus through movement do. It's all false advertising."

"Agreed. So, how's everyone doing? The school year is almost over for you and Mabel this year, isn't it? I can hardly wait for you two to come up! I've got a lot of unfinished projects that need a second pair of hands, and inventions that need tweaking! I could really use the help from you."

Dipper shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Um, Grunkle Ford, abo-"

Ford interrupted him, "Oh, and you should see Stanley now. He's so very excited to see you both again! Granted we were just down there for winter break, but he hates being away from his favorite niece and nephew for too long, you know? Anyway, what was it you were going to say?"

"Oh, uhm…" Dipper cut himself short. He didn't' have it in him to tell his grunkle the truth after that spiel. Instead he held up all three letters in front of the camera. "I got accepted to WCT, MIIT, and LU! Crazy, right?"

"Oh, Dipper, congratulations! Wait, hold on a second," Ford got up from his seat and walked off camera. "Stanley, come over here!"

' _Shit_.' Dipper ran that single word endlessly in his mind. Well now he was going to have to tell them both to their faces. He looked over his shoulder at the door wondering where Mabel was. She should be right there with him! It was her idea to stay after all. He turned back to the camera and watched as Ford pulled Stanley into view who was complaining about being pulled away from an incoming tourist group. Ford assured his brother that Soos could take care of them. After all, isn't that what Stan was training him for?

"Alright, alright!" Stan sat down next to his brother who was out of character-like excited. "So, what's going on, kid? You finally solve world hunger or something?"

"Not yet, Grunkle Stan," Dipper showed him the recommendation letters. "I got accepted to all three of my choice universities!"

The older twins shouted gleefully, and congratulated their nephew. Stan issued a challenge for Dipper to beat Ford's record in completing his college career. Ford scolded him, "It's not a competition, Stanley! Don't listen to him, Dipper. He probably just wants to sell footage of his family fighting."

Stan shrugged, "What it's good money. You'd be surprised how much people will pay for that stuff. In fact, kid, when you and your sister get up here-"

"Stanley! No!" Ford shoved his brother with his elbow.

"Hey, watch it." Stan rubbed his arm. "Well, your aim is getting better for sure."

Dipper cleared his throat. "Hey, um, I'd hate to interrupt this tender sibling moment, but there's something else I need to tell you guys. It's about this upcoming summer, actually."

On the other side of the room, Mabel leaned against the wall near Dipper's door. She'd heard all he said, and was now listening to her brother explaining why they wouldn't be visiting their grunkles for the summer. Although she did tell Dipper to just go on without her, but she knew he wouldn't anyway, and she felt guilty over it. She quietly retreated to her room, not wanting to hear her grunkle's responses. She opened her bedroom door, and plopped down on her bed with Waddles next to her.

"Waddles, why can't I be as smart as Dipper? Why am I so terrible at math? Also why do I even need to learn Algebra 2 to get into WCA anyway?" Waddles only grunted in response and rolled on his belly. Mabel sighed, and scratched him up and down. "You're lucky. You're cute. I bet you could get into any school that you wanted. If pigs could be US citizens that is. All you have to worry about is getting enough mud and sun, and eating all day long."

Mabel lifted herself up, and sat at her desk. She used her phone to bring up all the information about the jobs she was applying for on her own computer. She really loved technology sometimes.

"Welp," she said as she brought up the Marcy's employment tab. "Time to make sure I'm not wasting my summer."


	3. Chapter 3

Mabel got the job with ease. Spending every summer with your great uncle who happened to be a professional conman definitely had it's perks. She knew just what to say to her customers to close a sale. Even the ones who were troublesome, and spent most of the time bickering about the size, or texture of the clothing. Some would even make snide comments about Mabel's appearance, and she always retorted in a positive way. When you don't let bad customers get to you, working in retail wasn't so bad.

Her manager, Cheyenne, was impressed with her ability to turn a customer's frown upside down, as she put it. Always laughing and socializing with them at the end of the sale she made. Cheyenne noticed an exchange of phone numbers and Blog-Space information, which was against store policy. She made a mental note to talk to Mabel about that later.

She wasn't a hundred-percent comfortable with hiring the teenager at first. The last few that she hired almost got her fired for missing merchandise, and mouthing off to customers. Oh, she watched this one like a hawk indiscriminately, but after the first couple of weeks she decided that hiring the bubbly girl was a good move. She got a slew of emails from customers who loved Mabel. Some even stated that they wish they could take her home instead. A bit creepy, she must admit, but she figured it was meant to be charming.

Cheyenne was working one of the registers when Mabel bounced up to her to ask to be released for her lunch break. She nodded at her, and told her to take the rest of the day off instead as it was slow. "And don't forget to pick up your paycheck!" Mabel nodded and headed to the back room to gather her items, wave goodbye and headed out the door.

As soon as she was outside, Mabel let her demeanor fall; her shoulders slump and she let out a nice, drawn in sigh of relief. While she loved her job, it was exhausting. At least talking to people was. She couldn't fathom just how stupid customers could be before taking this job. Once, it took her a full twenty minutes to convince an elderly woman that their back room was not a warehouse where they have loads of stock waiting to be unboxed. There was maybe an extra package or two of extra orders that needed to be mailed back, and the rest was paper rolls for the registers, and cleaning supplies. Why did everyone think otherwise?

She trudged through the summer heat to the car she and Dipper shared; A '92 sported the ugliest shade of teal blue Mabel's eyes have ever had the unpleasantness of gazing at. Maybe at one time it shone brilliantly, but now, it looked weathered. The paint was peeling in random spots; the mirrors were crooked and wouldn't move when you used the knob inside of the car, so you had to press against the window with your bare hands to make sure your line of sight was visible. The back windows didn't roll down at all, and the two front passenger ones were missing, so James had ordered plastic sheets that snapped on and off for them. The speedometer was off by five miles forward, their gas gauge didn't move at all, so they manually had to figure out how much gas to use and when to fill the car up before they got stranded. James had placed a full gas tanker in the trunk for just in case. When they first bought the car, the back left tail light was busted, so they had to shell out money to replace the bulb and casing.

Mabel got in and adjusted herself in the rock hard seat. "Piece of junk. You weren't worth the six-hundred bucks Dipper and I combined for you."

The interior wasn't much better: the seats long lost their padding, ceiling looking like it would fall apart at any time, holes dug into the floor of the drivers side near the gas pedal. Of all the vehicles listed near their area on Greg's Listings, it was the only one that was under a thousand dollars.

They had bought it from a woman down in Oakland who looked to be in her late thirties who explained how special this car was to her, and how it was her first "baby", etc. The twins father, James, who was with them managed to talk her down from the original price of $800 to $600.

Mabel wondered if Stan taught him how swindle people like he taught her. Or maybe it was just in their family genes given how in-famous her great-grandmother was on the east coast for her psychic evaluations. They were told by James to not say a word; that he would do the talking. He and the lady hit it off pretty well. Telling stories about when they were young, and where they graduated from.

She and Dipper, in the meantime, looked the car over, and took turns sitting in the drivers seat. The best part was that it wasn't a stick shift, although the lever that stuck up in the middle between the two front seats was a bit stiff. The woman had claimed to take good care of the car. Looking around, the twins determined that was far from the truth. They took turns driving it around the block with James in the passenger seat, and both stated that they loved it afterwards. Despite the car's issues with the meters and gages. It was because of this that the woman was willing to go as low as she did, and that no one would buy it from her in the past. They didn't want to take the time to fix it up. Mabel didn't really blame them. Unless cars were a huge part of your life, you weren't going to spend thousands in repairs for a piece of junk car.

But they needed something to get them around town, and their parents grew tired of driving them around everywhere now that they were both old enough to get their licenses, which they both passed with flying colors, even though Mabel nearly gave her instructor whiplash near the end of her course run. Other than that, and the parallel parking part, she got perfect scores. Dipper, naturally, got a clean score of one-hundred on his. Mabel made him promise her to teach her the magic of parallel parking. She would need it if she was going to be visiting San Francisco when she got her fashion career off the ground. The city was notorious for it's near ninety-degree slopes, and need for weird parking.

Mabel pulled her paycheck out of her purse and grinned with delight. She really wanted to open it and see what she made for her first two weeks working, but her mom, Kara, made her promise to wait until later tonight so that she could get a couple of pictures of Mabel with it. Avoiding temptation, she placed the check back into her purse, started the car up, and drove home.

* * *

Mabel pulled up to the curb in front of her house which was their parking spot. Her parents had rightfully claimed the driveway, and the garage was full of storage that didn't need unpacking. She walked across the stone pathway that lead up to the front door. To the right of the door, and in front of the family room window was a small landscape garden that her parents had installed. In the middle was a three-tier koi pond with two waterfalls running down either side meant to filter the water.

"Hello, I'm home!" She called out as she entered onto the linoleum and took off her shoes. "Dipper, are you home?"

The ceiling above her creaked in response and she followed it towards the staircase. Before she step foot on it, an extremely colorful figure landed in front of her, and caught her by surprise.

"Damnit, Dipper!" She began to hit him with her purse. "What have I told you about surprising me like that- what in the name of god are you wearing?"

Her own twin brother stood before her, posing in an incredibly stupid way with both of his arms spread out, and he had this massive, dumb grin on his face. The outfit he wore was atrociously mismatched: A royal purple polo with random shape designs such as yellow circles, and bright blue squiggly lines, and magenta triangles. His pants were checkered white and turquoise and she could swear they resembled hammer pants. The shoes he had on - Dear lord that was an unholy shade of yellow. The legs of the pants ended at his ankles where the blinding high-tops began. Mabel looked up at his face to say something, but stopped when she saw the hat upon his head. The front of it was turquoise while the back was black. On the front of the cap, with bold letter stitching read, "Whacky-Dee's" in bright yellow thread.

Mabel gasped as she stared Dipper dead in his eyes. His features started to falter and he lowered his arms to his side almost in shame. He pursed his lips together before he spoke, "It's stupid, isn't it?"

"You look like a clown."

"I know!" His arms went up in the air, defeated. "But it was the only place I could find work on short notice, and with the weird bus schedule this town has."

"I'm confused. Why do you need to work? Also why would you ever subject yourself to working at Whacky-Dee's?"

Dipper took off his hat, and walked into the living room. He motioned for Mabel to sit next to him on the couch. "I'm not doing this because I need money. I'm doing this because there's someone who I really care about and love who thinks that she needs to work hard all by herself to get into her dream school." Mabel began to protest, but Dipper stopped her short. "Please let me finish, Mabes. Listen, I know that you're gonna try and deny that you need or want help, but I want to do this for you. I don't want you to be neck-deep in student loans, and unable to pay them back when we're older. I mean, look at mom! It's been almost twenty years since she graduated from college, and she still has thousands of dollars to pay back. It's a lot of stress on her!"

Mabel cupped her hands around her brother's, "Dipper, I can't take your money. If you do this, then you need to keep it all. You deserve it, especially since you're working in the food industry, which I hear is another circle of hell."

Dipper laughed, "Yeah, I hear that too, but I am willing to go through with it, if it means you get the future you've dreamed of since you were thirteen. Don't worry about me, it will only be for a couple of years. Please, let me help you."

Mabel sighed, "There's no talking you out of this, is there? Fine, but we need to establish some rules about this, okay? First of all, you are not going to give me all of the money you make. You deserve some of that for all the hard work you're about to put yourself through. Think of a reasonable amount to divide between us, okay?"

"Alright, I'll do that." He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. "Love you, sis."

"Yeah I love you too, you walking disaster. Seriously, Dipper, Whacky-Dees? Why would you want to work at a 90s themed fast food restaurant?"

"Hey I told you, it's the only place close enough to home that I can get to on time and take the bus back and forth." He stood, and headed back up the stairs. Mabel tailed behind.

"What are your hours?" She asked.

"Six in the morning to two in the afternoon." He replied.

"Hey, we almost have the same schedules! Mine are just set thirty minutes ahead of you." Mabel stopped Dipper at the door to his room. "How about we car pool, that way you don't have to waste money on a bus pass?"

"Sounds good to me. I'm gonna go change into something that's less of an eye sore." He turned into his room and shut the door.

"Thank goodness!" Mabel shouted on the other side of the door. She laughed as she heard a muffled 'hey', and went into her own room. "Waddles, I'm back!"

The pig stirred under a heap of blankets on top of Mabel's bed. A snout popped out and sniffed the surrounding area. A squeal rung out into the room, and the blankets got tossed out onto the floor one by one. Waddles got tangled up in them, and ended up rolling onto the floor. He scrambled to get up and ran over to Mabel bounding with excitement.

"Oh, Waddles you goofball!" She knelt down and cuddled up to him. "I missed you too. Hey, wanna go outside? Yeah, you've been stuck inside all day, haven't you?"

Mabel led Waddles downstairs who ran next to her, almost knocking her down. "Alright, calm down. You almost made me trip, silly pig."

Mabel opened the sliding door that led out to the backyard, and Waddles zoomed past her out to his mud hole, and troph. She giggled at his joy, and closed the door. She turned to face Dipper who was retrieving the vacuum out of the broom closet.

"I dented the carpet with my work shoes," he explained. "Gotta get rid of the evidence before mom sees it."

Mabel nodded, and went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of orange juice. She leaned against the entry way between the kitchen and the dining room and watched Dipper as he attempted to flatten out the carpet.

"I still can't believe you're going to be working at Whacky-Dee's." She laughed.

"Yuck it up now, sis," Dipper turned to point at her. "You'll be thanking me when you graduate from your fancy dress school without having to worry about student loans!" He turned off the vacuum and observed his work. "Think mom will notice?"

"Not if you're lucky." Mabel watched him roll up the cord around the side of the machine, and place it back into the closet. "Thank you again for doing this, bro. It really means a lot."

Dipper smiled at her. "Hey, anything for my favorite sister in the whole wide world!" He wandered into the kitchen, and opened the cabinets above the dishwasher pulling out a stack of plates. "Hey, grab some silverware and napkins? Let's get the table set up so it's one less thing for mom to do when she gets home tonight."

Mabel did as she was told. She followed Dipper's steps around the table, and lined up the silverware to the right of the plates. Dipper came up behind her and encased her in a bear hug. He lifted her up off her feet and she screamed at him to put her down. He obeyed while laughing, and ran off before she could knock him over the head.

 _'It'll be alright,'_ he thought to himself, closing the door to his room. _'This is going to work out. It'll end up being the best decision I've ever made.'_

* * *

It was the worst decision he had ever made in his entire life; and that's saying something for someone who wasn't even twenty yet. Dipper stood at the counter in front of his register with the fakest happy-look he could muster. He hated customers. He hated how stupid they were. He hated how rude they were. He hated how loud their kids were. Most of all, he hated having to speak to them with a fake surfer accent and use 90s lingo.

"Here's your change back, miss. Stay rad!" The woman giggled at him as she stepped aside to wait for her food. He felt so embarrassed just being in the building.

Everything in the place had stereotypical bright colors, and weird shapes plastered on them. The walls, the furniture, the floor, even the kiddie playground. There were paintings of the restaurant's animated mascot, a white rat in pointy sunglasses who uttered the catchphrase, "Rattical!" In every god-forsaken commercial this billion-dollar company flushed out.

Dipper was positive about two things: first, the CEO of this company kept reliving the 90s through rose colored shades; second, they had to have used pictures they found on the internet for the interior design. He was sure that he has seen the weird static and pink circles on an old cartoon before.

Speaking of which, that's all the TVs in the place ever played. From a marketing standpoint, he could understand. But dear lord in heaven the quality of a lot of these shows were just awful. Save for the superhero shows, he thought they were okay. The only complaint he had about them was that a lot of the hero's dialogues were inward thinking and not much interacting with the other characters.

Dipper did his best to drown out the bad acting, and the bright colors. He reminded himself that he was doing this for Mabel. He needed to be strong for her. This was all for her.

"Hey, what's up, Mikey?"

Dipper shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on the customer in front of him. Who happened to go to school with him, and even hang out with him sometimes.

"Hey, Jarrod." He greeted. "Not much here, just working."

"I see," Jarrod eyed Dipper up and down. He bit down on his lips to keep from laughing aloud. "Love the outfit. You trying out for a teenage prop show on the Matinee network?"

Dipper glared at him, "Are you gonna order or what?"

"Yeah, sure," Jarrod turned his attention to the menu above. "I'll take the, uhh… 'Mad Fresh Combo'? The fuck? Who names these?"

"Corporate." Dipper answered bluntly.

"Jesus Christ, you look dead inside. You know, you always hear all the time on the internet about how great the 90s were," Jarrod gestured around the building. "But if it was anything like this, I'm glad that I was born in 2001."

"I agree, now is the Mad Fresh what you want?"

"Sure," Jarrod pulled out his wallet and took out a hundred dollar bill. "Got enough change for this?"

Dipper stared him down. "Really? You're going to pay for an eight dollar meal with a hundred?"

"It's all I got!" Jarrod opened up his wallet and spread out the money inside. "See?"

Dipper snorted at the column of one-hundred dollar bills, and grabbed the one out of Jarrod's hands. "So which bank did you rob?"

Jarrod leaned in over the counter and whispered just enough so that Dipper could here. "I'll tell you if you meet me later tonight. When do you get off work?"

Eyeing him carefully, Dipper handed his friend the change back. "Um, at two? Should I be worried?"

Jarrod sighed, "Look, Michael. Do you really want to spend your summer in this dump making chump change? Or, you wanna make some fast cash?"

"Fast cash doing _what_ exactly?"

"If you meet me across the street over at the food court in the mall, I'll tell you, okay?" Jarrod leaned back and started to walk away. "You got my number. Text me."

"I'll think about it," Dipper assured him. "Um, peace out."

Jarrod's laughter made Dipper's face beat red. He greeted the next customer in his fake accent and realized even more how ridiculous he sounded. He did want to make a lot more money for sure. Since he was only part time, he'd barely be making more than $400 a month. That won't cover even one of Mabel's classes. When school came around again, he would be forced to working only fifteen hours a week if he could get that.

The thought of not being able to make enough money to help his sister before he graduated worried him. He only had one year of high school left, and then he'd be off to whichever university he chose. He'd be unable to lend her a hand financially.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jarrod getting up from his table and heading for the door. Dipper grabbed his manager, and asked for a break. After gaining approval, he darted out after his friend and stopped him in his tracks at the corner.

"Hey, Jarrod," Dipper frowned at the smirk growing on Jarrod's face. "Don't give me that! Look, I've thought about what you said. I'll meet you at the mall."

Jarrod slapped Dipper's back in approval. "Great! I'll see you over there at around six tonight, 'kay?"

"Okay," Dipper confirmed. "At six, got it. Later."

He turned and walked back to the place of his current employment. Before heading in, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone to text Mabel. Just to make sure she didn't need the car at all that night. He got a ping a couple of minutes later from her, giving him a green light. For some reason, Dipper felt dreadful. It was almost like he shouldn't be doing this, and that it'd lead to a bad situation. He didn't want a bad run in with the cops, especially considering that his dad was on the force as well.

However, all that money in Jarrod's wallet looked too enticing for him to say no right away. He'd at least check it out first, and make sure what Jarrod was going to offer him was a legitimate job, and that he wouldn't drug him to sell his organs or anything like that. He hoped everything worked out and that nothing bad would happen. Maybe it would, and if it came to that, Dipper promised himself that he would back out entirely.


	4. Chapter 4

Dipper was seated in the food court inside of Piedmont's newest shopping mall that was conveniently named after the town. In the middle of the large court, there was a built in playground for parents to dump their kids into so that they could eat and talk in peace. A large ball pit sat in the middle of the playground with small slides shaped like zoo animals, and a medium-sized tube structure surrounding it. The small kids ran around happily and their small feet made pit-pat noises against the rubber flooring. The waist high fence that encased the playground was lined with styrofoam padding to prevent small children from doing serious damage to themselves.

To the north side of the playground was a tall tree made out of metal and plaster. It was painted like a standard green tree with plastic animals surrounding the roots. Their vision was focused up on the trunk of the tree. Right before where the branches began, was a cabinet shaped door. There were two knobs right next to each other, and it the doors had a shuttered design to them.

Dipper checked his phone for both the time and to see if Jarrod had responded to his last ten texts. He had not, and it was starting to piss Dipper off. It had been over an hour already, and he was beginning to think that he had been pranked. He decided to try once more.

 _Hey, are you even coming or not? It's been nearly two hours, man._

A loud ringing echoed across the courtyard, and much of the parents attending turned to face the tree in the back. As if in unison, all the kids who were playing stopped what they were doing, and sat down around the base of the tree. When the melody stopped, the two doors on the tree opened up to reveal a large animatronic bear that welcomed the crowd. He wore a red flannel vest, and a white undershirt. A red bow tie that matched the vest spun whenever it said anything exciting and the kids cheered for it. It also wore a bowler hat on top of it's head that would automatically tip from time to time.

The robot announced it was story time. It's head moved from side to side, it's bottom lip flapped up and down whenever it spoke, it's arms waved to it's audience, and eyes shifted left to right. It was hideously creepy, and Dipper didn't like it. He wanted Jarrod to arrive already so that he didn't have to stare at this _Five Nights at Freddy's_ rip off another minute.

His phone pinged, making him jump. A table of teens behind him giggled at his reaction. Dipper's face flared red as he read the text angrily.

 _yea man, sorry im 10 min. out. cya n a bit k_

Dipper had half a right mind to be nit-picky and correct the grammar, but he decided it'd be a waste of time. Jarrod was that asshole who never reacted the way you wanted him too. He was immune to all sorts of insults, even ones about his family. Years of internet lingering will do that to a man.

Another ping from his phone. This one was from Mabel.

 _Hey, broseph! When are you coming home? We have visitors!_

Visitors? Dipper groaned. If they were people from his parent's church, he'd never get away. They weren't bad people, but they were nosy as shit. He and Mabel were questioned and prodded about what they were going to be doing in the future and whatnot. Why did older people like to ask those questions? Dipper sighed and decided to text back asking who, even though he really didn't want to find out.

The reply he got was a photo of Grunkle Stan, and Grunkle Ford. Seeing them lifted his spirits, but then almost immediately died back down when he remembered why he was at the mall. He glared at Jarrod's contact info. "I swear to god, if you don't get your stupid ass here, I'm gonna-"

"Whoa, alright! No need to get angry."

Dipper turned around in his chair to see Jarrod walking up to him and waving. He waited until his guest was seated before bitching him out. "Man, what the hell? You said, "six o'clock", and it's now seven forty-five."

"I know, I know, and I am sorry," Jarrod apologised. "But I ran into a few problems with my employer. Apparently I "stepped out of line" when I suggested a new line of work to you earlier today."

Dipper's mood dropped. "So, no job then?"

"Don't get too antsy, I didn't say that." Jarrod rolled his eyes. "He said that he would consider it over the weekend. If by early next week he says that he's interested in you, then he'd like to meet up with and interview you. Now, keep in mind this guy's just another cog in the wheel, you won't be meeting the actual boss boss."

"Okay, that's kind of weird."

"Hey, he's a busy guy. He doesn't have time to meet and greet every one of his new hires." Jarrod shrugged. "Though when my boss says that he's considering the offer, that usually means you're good. We've lost a few guys these last couple of months, and finding recruits are hard."

"Alright, anything that I need to prepare for when I meet your boss?" Dipper opened up a note taking app on his phone and prepared himself to start typing.

"You don't gotta do all that fake interested in the company and it's history crap." Jarrod waved him off. "These people don't like liars. Worse than people who steal from them, even. Just be honest and say that you need the dough, and he'll get you in."

Dipper closed the app, and placed his phone down. "Okay, so what about if I get to do an interview? Do I have to wear a suit and tie?"

Jarrod laughed, "Nah, you don't gotta doll yourself up. Just come in some semi-casual clothing and you'll be fine."

Dipper looked unsure. "What kind of job is this exactly?"

"Mainly errand running. You'd be delivering packages, and picking up crap for your clients. Collecting payments, and bringing them back to your employer, that sort of thing."

"This is all legal, right?" Dipper eyed Jarrod for any sign of deception.

"No not really."

Well, he wasn't expecting brutal honesty.

Jarrod leaned in and leveled his sight with Dipper's. His moniker of coolness disappeared. "Listen, Michael. I'm not gonna lie to you about any of this. A lot of what I do is very illegal and many would call it immoral to say the least," he dug into his back pocket and brought out his wallet, spreading it open to show off the wad of cash that settled inside. "But you can't argue with results like this. This is just from the past two weeks."

"Are you serious?"

"Yup." Jarrod closed his wallet and placed it back in his pocket. He watched Dipper's facial expressions struggle to settle on an emotion. Ranging from doubt to pleased. "Hey," Jarrod got his attention. "You know I wouldn't put you in danger. I like you a lot, Mikey. That's why I'm telling you about this opportunity. You told me that you wanted to help your sister get into the college of her dreams? Well, I'm here providing answers for you. I know how this all sounds, but believe me when I say that these people are good at taking care of their employees. You won't have to do anything too extravagant like killing somebody or whatever. This isn't your average gang. Hell, they pulled an employer recently who was giving his staff crap and treating them like they're lowlives. That guy hasn't been back since."

"He got fired, right?" Dipper asked warily.

"I don't get into the boss's personal business like that. Not like he hurt me or nothin'." He was interrupted by a muffled ringing, and reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. He frowned at the screen then he looked back at Dipper, "I gotta take this, sorry." He got up from the table and went out of the food court and leaned against a wall where there was less people.

Dipper watched him go, and picked up his own phone when he got another text from Mabel asking him when he was getting home again. He let her know that he'd be home soon and to not worry. He enveloped his attention on a gaming app called, War of the Kingdoms. It was a medieval strategy game that allowed him to build up his own kingdom and army, and then use his resources to conquer other lands in his own game, or challenge other players to see who had a sturdier kingdom. So far the best player was someone by the screenname, _KingArtemis41_.

He looked up to see Jarrod coming back his way, and set his phone down. "Is there anything else I need to know about, Jarrod?"

Jarrod tweaked his head upward at an angle in thought. His lips pursed together, and his eyebrows arched in concentration. "No… I don't think so." He looked back at Dipper. "I'll call you sometime on Monday to give you an update. For real, think about this long and hard, okay? Anyway, I gotta really go now, my ride's here. See ya, Mikey, and sorry for being late again."

Dipper nodded at him. "It's fine, no worries. I'll catch you later!"

Jarrod winked at him before turning around and walking out one of the side doors to the plaza.


	5. Chapter 5

Laughter erupted throughout the household once Dipper opened the door. He smiled then sighed with relief that at least one other person was still awake. Mabel wouldn't kill him in the morning. After setting his shoes in line with the other pairs on the linoleum, he strode into the dining room where his sister and mom were sitting with Stanley and Stanford.

"Grunkle Stans!" he ran up to hug them both.

"Dipper," Ford stood up first to embrace his nephew. "It's good to see you!"

"Yeah, any later and we would have had to send dad after your ass." Mabel joked while looking at her watch. Dipper stuck his tongue out at her. She rolled her eyes. "Real mature, Dip."

Stanley scoffed, "As if you have any room to talk?"

Mabel faked offense. "Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Your great uncle has a point, sweetheart." Kara chimed in.

"You too, mom?" she threw her arms upwards. "My whole family is turning against me!"

"Stop being such a drama queen, Mabes," Dipper laughed as he let go of Ford. He laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes. "You've just proven Stan's point."

"That's right," Stan rose from his chair and leaned towards Dipper. "Come here, kid." He wrapped his arms around Dipper's torso into a bear hug and squeezed tightly lifting him off the ground. "Damn kid, you weigh like eighty pounds. Kara, are you feeding your kids right?" he laughed as he set Dipper down.

"I feed my kids well enough, thank you, Stan." Kara pointly stated.

"And for your information, Grunkle Stan," Dipper smoothed out his shirt. "I weigh one-sixty."

Stan backed up and placed his hands up in defense, "Whoa, big man on campus."

Dipper rolled his eyes. He took a seat in between Mabel and Stanley. "Is dad still at work?"

"He is," Kara got up from her seat and moved into the kitchen. "Anyone want coffee or something to eat?"

"No thanks, Kara," Stanley declined. "I've already slammed down about six cups today during the drive over from Oregon. If I have anymore my liver might explode." Stanford and Mabel accepted the offer for coffee. Stan pointed at her, "You give her coffee?"

"She gets half decaf!" Kara yelled. "Michael, do you want anything?"

"No thanks mom. I have work tomorrow morning."

"Wait," Stanley stared at him. "Work? You have a job?"

Dipper realized his mistake.

Mabel leaned in and sprawled her arms across the table. "Oh! Dipper, you should show off your uniform!" she grinned at him. Her cheeks lifted her eyes in joy. She was amused; he was not.

"No."

"Aw, come on. They're gonna see it someday anyway." Mabel pleaded and brought out the big guns. Damn her ability to look more cute and pitiful than a Wisney character that just lost it's parents through death.

"I said 'No'."

"Mabel, please leave your brother alone." Kara walked around back to her seat with three mugs of hot coffee in hand. She handed Mabel, who slumped in defeat, and Ford theirs.

Ford thanked her. "What I'm curious about is why you even need a job, Dipper? During our video chat you stated that you were already being accepted into a wide variety of universities, and even granted a couple of scholarships as well."

"Hey yeah, that's right!" Stan pointed at Dipper accusingly. "What's the job really for?"

Mabel looked over her coffee mug at her brother who kept a cool complexion and began to explain that he was setting money aside for incase things went awry. The future wasn't' secure and something could go wrong at any moment. He just wanted to make sure that he had a plan B to fall back on. She shifted her sight from her mom to Ford. Both of them lapped up the story with genuine expressions of joy. They'd already told the same story to their parents after Dipper got his job.

She then looked at Stan who in turn clearly didn't buy it. Figures. He didn't say anything about it though. He responded properly along with Ford and Kara who praised him for planning ahead.

Ford reached out and squeezed Dipper's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Dipper. You're taking charge of your own future."

"Thanks, Grunkle Ford." Dipper smiled at him. He looked over at Stan who stared unbelievingly at him. A bit of nausea suddenly hit him. "So, I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep now. Night guys." He bent down to kiss his mom on the head. "Give dad a kiss for me, mom."

"I will, honey. Good night."

"Night, Dipping Dot." Mabel fist bumped him.

"See ya in the mornin', kid," Stan waved him off.

Dipper stopped and turned around. "Oh yeah, why are you guys here again?"

"We're here to visit," answered Ford as a matter of factly.

"Well, obviously,"

Ford laughed. "Well, we figured that since you two weren't going to come up to visit us for the summer, that we would stay here instead for a couple of months."

"Two and a half months, to be exact," Stan corrected holding up two fingers to illustrate his point.

"Oh, great. More old folks to nag at us." Dipper turned back to go up to his room.

"Oh, you just wait, boy," Stan called up to him. "I've got some wild stories to tell you and your sister!"

"Please don't, Grunkle Stan." Mabel begged.

"Just do what I do, Mabel, and pretend you're listening to him." Ford suggested to her and winked. Stan elbowed him in the shoulder.

* * *

The weekend came and went at a rather slow pace for Dipper's liking. It felt even longer knowing that your family could be around any corner of the house waiting to jump out at you just to ridicule you for your uniform that you had to wear to your job.

Mabel had already snuck pictures of him when he wasn't paying attention. Stan and Ford already had several copies with the former making a point to bring up the hideous garb every chance he got.

It got old real quick. Dipper no longer felt embarrassed that his great uncles knew about his uniform. Only pure annoyance. He thanked whatever great being that was up there watching that there was a lock on his door. He could only put up with so much humiliation in a day.

Mabel had already apologized, and it was hard to stay mad at her. She made a point to ask Stan if he could tone down on the jokes with Dipper and his uniform. It took a couple of days, but finally things went back to normal and the dead horse was buried.

It was a sunday afternoon when he received a text from Jarrod.

 _Meet me at the bus stop at 41st and Piedmont ave tomorrow 7am._

This confused him as he had a car available. Mabel didn't work on mondays. He text Jarrod back letting him know that he'd just drive them both.

 _We're taking the bus. Our ride will be waiting for us at the transbay._

Dipper wanted to argue, but he held back. His first thought was that Jarrod got a call back from his employer, and Dipper got pre-approved for the job. But why go through the trouble of hitching a ride with a stranger when he could just drive himself? The idea of having a quick getaway incase things went wrong made him feel better. He decided to set his worries aside as he figured that he was just overthinking the situation again.

A rumbling in his stomach interrupted his thoughts. He was hungry. A perfect excuse to leave his room! Excited at the thought of diverting his stress, he rushed around the corner and almost didn't catch himself as he nearly collided with his father.

"Whoa there, Speedy Gonzales, slow down!" James reached out to grab Dipper by the shoulders to make sure he didn't fall backwards. "What's the rush, son?"

"Sorry, dad," Dipper's face flushed red. "Just lost in thought. Also hungry."

"Well that's great, cus so am I!" James accompanied Dipper downstairs. "Hey, so, your mom is out with your great uncles. Something about legalities and undoing a huge mistake - I didn't pay much attention - and, your sister is at work. So, how about we go out and get lunch? Just the two of us. It'll be like a "girl's day out"! But with us guys instead!"

"Okay, dad," Dipper laughed. "Let's go."

James smiled, "What are you feelin'?"

Dipper shrugged, "Whatever you want."

James collected his keys from the bowl by the front door after he tied his shoelaces. He held the door open for Dipper who walked outside first, then locked up the house. He walked over to his son who waited near the passenger's side to be let in.  
"So, you know that Indian place near the 24/7 on Emmet street?"

"Yeah?..." Dipper eyed him suspiciously. He jumped a bit when his dad held out his hand and the keys jingled in front of his face. He sighed and held out his hand letting the keys drop into his open palm. "So lazy…" Dipper droned and walked around to the driver's side.

"It's my only day off," James defended himself and got into the car when Dipper unlocked the doors. "I'm allowed to be lazy."

"How's work by the way?" Dipper adjusts everything in the car to his prefered settings, and backs out of the driveway.

"Well, I can't talk about the investigation itself, but SFPD found another body floating in the bay. They're thinking it's connected to our case, which is just perfect because as if working with Oakland isn't bad enough, now we've got San Fran breathing down our necks." James sighed with irritation.

"Speaking of which dad, I'm gonna be in San Fran all day tomorrow. Basically. With a friend."

Dipper's fingers clenched around the steering wheel, and he purposely focused his eyesight ahead without even glancing at his dad. James noticed this.

"Which friend?"

"... Jaaaa-rrod?"

"You know that your mother and I don't approve of him. He has a record."

"Dad, he was twelve when that shoplifting incident happened. He hasn't done anything real bad since then, has he?"

"That's not the point, Michael."

"So, once a thief, always a thief, right?" Dipper felt real testy right now. He could feel his father's gaze burning through his skull. From the corner of his eye he could see James turn back forward and stare out the window. The rest of the trip to the restaurant was silent with neither of them talking. Once they arrived and parked, Dipper turned off the car and waited for his dad to say something.

"You will keep your phone on at all times. You will check in once every hour. You will be home before midnight," They both looked at each other and James spoke intensely. "Is that clear?"

"Yes," Dipper agreed to the terms relieved that he'd be able to make the appointment.

James brought up a finger to his son's face. "If I smell any drugs or alcohol or see any kind of illegal substance on you, trust me son I will know straight away I am a cop, that kid will be put in jail for the rest of his life, and you will be grounded, if not incarcerated, for the next twenty years. I won't even have to send my squad out, I'll just call your mom. She'll fuck his shit up."

Dipper scoffed, "Well, as a bouncer for a night club, she does get paid to do so."

"That she does," James nodded. "Make sure you let Mabel know that you'll be using the car all day."

"Actually, dad, she said that she needed it tomorrow," Lying straight through his teeth. He was dead if this didn't pan out. He made a mental note to text Mabel to play along when they got home. "We're gonna take the bus over." he smiled at James who looked unfazed and annoyed.

"I have half a right mind to implant a tracking device into your phone," James muttered. "We'll talk about this later, let's go eat, alright?" He smiled signifying the subject be dropped.

Dipper nodded in agreement. He gave James back the car keys, and they both spent the next hour suffering through hot Indian curry.


End file.
